Originally published in 1928, this treatise by a former merchant navy officer and linguist with the Foreign Office satirically pays tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilization, the hangman. Charles Duff's barbed wit addresses not only hanging, but also electrocution, decapitation, and gassing; innocent men executed and executions botched; bloodlust mobs; and political expedients. Admired by Bertholt Brecht and Dylan Thomas, Duff's polemic undoubtedly contributed to Britain's suspension of hanging for the punishment of murder in 1965. In its time, London's Observer called it "a very deadly squib ... likely to upset the equanimity of upholders of capital punishment far more than any ponderous tome of 'high explosive' argument or invective."